Thu 22 Feb 2018, 04:44 AM | Posted by Mark Langabeer
The documentary programme, Panorama, has exposed the scandal of tenants being evicted through no fault of their own. A landlord can invoke a section 21 order that requires a tenant to vacate their home within two months. This allows landlords to evict without giving specific reasons for ending the tenancy.
The reporter, Richard Bilton, interviewed a mum of five children who was evicted because she was unable to afford a hike in rent of £400 per month. The local council placed her for a short period in a B&B after which she was put in another temporary rented house. As a result of the upheaval, she lost her job and her children’s education suffered due to the hour and a half travel time to school. The older children slept on the floor because much of their furniture remained in their old home.
Bolton interviewed a lady who been evicted under section 21 on two previous occasions. She was living in accommodation that had previously been an office block. The rooms were tiny, and she shared a bed with her daughter. She was once a foster-carer, but her home was no longer suitable for fostering.
The reporter also interviewed a woman who had been evicted because she had repeatedly complained about a leaking shower. She had spent £40,000 on the home and now had nothing to show for it.
Panorama reported that 24,000 tenants had been evicted under section 21 during the past year. It reported that tenants in Britain had less rights than in almost all other European nations. The housing charity Shelter believes that thousands are evicted because they have complained about the condition of the properties they rent.
Specialist firms have sprung up, advising landlords on how to evict tenants. A manager of one of these outfits, described this as ‘a little brutal’. The eviction of tenants is the main cause of homelessness and there are some 13milion people living in the private rented sector.
The programme claimed that the private-rented market can also be costly for landlords. Bilton interviewed a landlord who wanted to evict a tenant who had put up a satellite dish without permission and paid rent on an instalment basis. My sympathy waned when the landlord stated that the rent for a two-bed flat was £950 a calendar month.
Labour have vowed to end the practice of evicting tenants under a section 21 order. It is another, among many good reasons to both vote Labour and to join Labour in a struggle for a just society. I think it is also necessary for Labour to commit to a programme of building a million council homes, in order to end profiteering at the expense of working people.
